This invention relates to a method for processing beef tongues.
Beef tongue has long been recognized as an appetizing and nutritious food source. Customarily, the external membrane or skin of the tongue is removed before the product is served, but such removal is made difficult because of the extreme tenacity between the skin and the internal red meat of the tongue. A common practice which reduces this problem has been to precook the tongue and then peel the skin from it. In other instances, knife trimming has been used.
The present invention provides a method for making skinned beef tongue in a labor-efficient manner which avoids excessive loss of red meat and provides for effective removal of the skin. According to the invention, the beef tongues are trimmed with a knife, rigidified by chilling and, while rigidified, the skin is sliced from the chilled tongue.
The trimming step is preferably performed at a temperature approximately equal to the normal body temperature of the animal in order to reduce excessive loss of red meat during trimming. The temperature during trimming should be at least 92.degree. F. The trimming includes removal from the tongue of fat, lymph nodes, salivary glands, gullet and the hyoid bone. Ridigifying is preferably performed by chilling the tongue so that, when the skin is subsequently sliced from the tongue, the tongue will have a temperature of about 35.degree.-45.degree. F. The skin is preferably sliced from the tongue by supporting the tongue on a surface and moving it at a velocity no greater than about 60 feet per minute into a blade which has a cutting edge spaced above the surface. The tongue is moved into the blade by providing the machine with means for pulling on portions of the skin which have been sliced from but remain connected to the tongue.